With a tip of the hat to the legendary Joe Walsh, I believe that “The reader you are, the writer you get.” My professional career has taken me to Wall Street, Madison Avenue, Silicon Alley, Hollywood, Washington and the NYC sports and media scene. I dig into what is being said by newsmakers and the media on the “hot news” of the day and try to connect the dots. I am the editor of Proactive Advisor Magazine, the first magazine focused on active investment management. Click on “Follow” under the Author’s name or follow me on Twitter, David Wismer, @djwizmo

'Two Faces Have I: One To Laugh And One To Cry' (And Other Quotes Of The Week)

“I must confess, I am dreading today’s elections.” –Google co-founder Sergey Brin, as reported by Forbes and others, from a Brin pre-election post on Google+. Brin bemoaned the fact his vote would not count for much in California, not being a “swing state”, and added: “no matter what the outcome, our government will still be a giant bonfire of partisanship.”

“I might run for county council.” –Vice President Joe Biden joked in one interview about his post-second term political future (Politico). In a widely reported related story, Biden was asked if this was the last time he would be voting for himself, and replied, “I don’t think so”, raising speculation again on a 2016 Presidential run. (ABC).

@ billmaher “Bad night for rich idiots. I just wish Connecticut had more elective offices for Linda McMahon to not win.”

Republican strategist/commentator Alex Castellanos in live election night commentary on CNN: “This is going to be a repudiation of the Republican Party… We’re still seen as the Party of No.”

“I am waiting for the locusts and pestilence next.” –New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on the potential additional damage from Nor’easter ‘Athena”, coming on the heels of Hurricane Sandy. (worldweatherpost.com)

“If LIPA decides to start sending crews back to California and the lights are not on, I can start screaming about it.”–Suffolk County (Long Island, NY) Executive Steve Bellone (Newsday), on his move to bypass conversations with the management of beleaguered Long Island Power Authority and speak directly with substation crews. LIPA is catching severe criticism on all fronts for the continuing nightmare power outages on LI, where some homes, it is speculated, still might not have power until Thanksgiving.

But enough for now on the U.S. elections and politicians and let’s quickly hit some of the other news:

“Economic activity in the euro area is expected to remain weak although it continues to be supported by our monetary policy stance.” –ECB President Mario Draghi, in some ill-timed remarks last week, certainly not helping with short-term market sentiment. (Reuters)

“Expectations of any progress on Greece’s financial stalemate at a meeting of euro-zone finance ministers set for Nov. 12 were diminished Friday.” –Wall Street Journal, adding, “a senior EU official said that it was ‘very, very possible’ that another meeting would need to be held before making any decisions on whether to give the country a long-held tranche of aid.”

“The new leadership will see to it that the economy will not deteriorate further.” –Bloomberg BusinessWeek reporting comments of Shen Jianguang, chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities Asia. He and Bloomberg added, amidst the once a decade leadership handover in China:

We expect slightly better growth from the data, amid infrastructure spending from the fiscal boost, and a more resilient consumption sector, but maintain that a recovery will be mild.

China’s economic growth this year may be the weakest since 1999 after the global slowdown crimped exports and government policies to curb inflation and property speculation damped domestic demand. Expansion may ease to 7.7 percent from 9.3 percent in 2011, according to the median estimate of 45 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News from Oct. 18-22.

Others have speculated that China’s new leadership will be forced to adopt more accommodating policies with the West in a bid to boost domestic consumption, with Bloomberg Radio also interviewing ‘Banker to the World’ Bill Rhodes (former Citi Vice Chair and still senior adviser). Rhodes sees a return to the spirit of international cooperation found behind the Chinese expression from 1992:

The color of the cat, black or white, does not matter, as long as it is good at catching mice.

“McDonald’s (MCD) posts first sales drop in 9 years.” –Chicago Business Journal, saying, “same-store sales dropped 1.8 percent in October from a year ago, the hamburger chain’s first monthly sales drop since April 2003.”

But there were some positive developments as well, with Qualcomm (QCOM) pleasantly surprising and forecasting a 20+% revenue increase for 2013, Priceline (PCLN) announcing its deal to acquire Kayak (KYAK), AT&T’s (T) announcement of a huge $14 billion spending plan to beef up its networks, and some better than expected consumer confidence data just in time for the holidays.

We will leave it there for the week, but will give the NYC tabloids their due, as they responded to the Petraeus story in typical over-the-top headline fashion:

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